Sentenced: 15Y0 With ‘Extensive & Violent Criminal History’ Randomly Shot & Killed Minn. Woman

[Sugar Cookie]

A 15-year-old boy is under arrest in the random, fatal shooting of a 34-year-old businesswoman in her vehicle in St. Paul last week, police announced Tuesday.

Julia (Yuliya) Li was driving in the Payne-Phalen area "when the suspect opened fire, taking her life," Steve Linders, a police spokesman, said Tuesday. "She was just going about her business when all of a sudden she was shot."

Paramedics took Li, of St. Paul, to Regions Hospital and she died a short time later.

Minneapolis police officers arrested the 15-year-old on Tuesday afternoon in Minneapolis and he was being held in Hennepin County on suspicion of second-degree murder and other crimes allegedly committed in Hennepin County, according to St. Paul police.

He is charged in Ramsey County with murder and a county attorney's spokesman said his office filed a motion to have the teen certified to stand trial as an adult.

"This tragic, senseless violence brought an end to the life of a bright, well-respected, committed, hard-working professional who will be greatly missed by everyone who knew her," said H.B. Fuller President and CEO Jim Owens in statement.

"It is even more gut-wrenching to learn that the young suspect had committed other violent crimes but had been released," Owens' statement continued. "Our mayors, government officials and judicial officials need to create a system that does not allow young criminals to terrorize our community. Had they done a better job, Julia would be alive today."

The suspect has an "extensive and violent criminal history," Linders said. Details weren't publicly available Tuesday night.

Li was originally from Kazakhstan in central Asia and moved to the U.S. in 2007 to study at the University of Minnesota, where she graduated with her bachelor's degree in economics and global studies, according to Kimberlee Sinclair, H.B. Fuller's senior director of corporate communications.

She left the Twin Cities to work in brand management and marketing for GE Transportation and Procter & Gamble before returning to St. Paul in 2016 to earn her master of business administration from the University of St. Thomas and then began working at H.B. Fuller.

Li is survived by her husband, parents and sister.

POLICE CHIEF: TEEN WASN'T HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR PREVIOUS CRIMES

Police Chief Todd Axtell said investigators, working with Minneapolis police, showed "diligence and determination" in arresting the teen.

"Sadly, this is yet another example of how our system has failed to put victims first, failed to help a young person going down a dangerous and destructive path, and failed our entire community," Axtell said in a statement.

Twin Cities

St. Paul news -- including crime, politics, education, business, sports, entertainment and things to do -- from the Pioneer Press.

www.twincities.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

This terrorist needs to be named and shown they will probably find out he committed more crimes they do not even know about.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

A Ramsey County District Court Judge has handed a teen gunman a 32-plus year prison sentence for a deadly drive-by shooting that killed an innocent woman, who was headed home from the grocery store in St. Paul last year.

Yuliya (Julia) Li was shot and killed on Feb. 16, 2022.

Authorities have said she went to the store to prepare for a dinner party she was hosting later in the week.

Melvin Williams, who was just 15 years old at the time, admitted he pulled the trigger, while driving himself.

Initially investigators had said he opened fire at random. But on Tuesday at his sentencing hearing, Williams claimed he was aiming at a young man he had an ongoing beef with who was walking in a nearby intersection.

"This was not supposed to happen," Williams told the court. "I wish I could take it back every day. This was a true accident. I am so incredibly sorry for your loss and my role in it."

In imposing sentence, Judge Reynaldo Aligada, Jr. responded, "You knew the risks of firing a gun in a busy intersection during the day. Your criminal history and your experience showed you what could happen if your bullet went astray which it did."

Li was 34 years old and had come to the United States from Kazakhstan in search of peace, prosperity, advanced studies and the American dream when she was killed. Company officials had said Li was flourishing in her career at H.B. Fuller.

"That is the dream her mother, her family members, people in this courtroom had for her," prosecutor Kevin Fleming said during his arguments for the 386-month prison sentence.

In addition to apologizing to Li’s family and his own, Williams promised to come out of prison a better and changed man. His attorneys announced he had just earned his high school diploma while locked up in juvenile detention for the better part of two years.


With credit for time served, it is expected Williams will spend just shy of 20 years behind prison bars, the rest on some form of supervised release.

Teen gunman sentenced for St. Paul drive-by shooting of innocent woman

Yuliya (Julia) Li was shot and killed along Payne Avenue on Feb. 16, 2022.

www.fox9.com